Holiday Care Shipment

Sam Holland and Ashton Evans (right to left) pack boxes, while Michelle Hoelscher weighs the items and Terri Parker completes the U.S. Customs forms for the shipment.

TTI staff always respond in a tremendous way when asked for assistance. The latest example is the holiday care package project for Stuart Denner, TTI safety coordinator, and the 17 men in his unit, who are deployed with the U.S. Navy. The “package” quickly became a “shipment” when TTI staff donated enough items to fill 23 boxes and a large envelope!

“I was overwhelmed with the interest in the project and the generosity of everyone,” said Terri Parker, who coordinated the project. “The results illustrate the respect that our employees have for our men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces as well as their fondness for Stuart as one of our own on active duty right now.”

Nineteen boxes of items — from Cracker Jacks, Chapstick and chewing gum to beef jerky, batteries and puzzle books — were shipped from College Station. Four additional boxes were sent from Austin, Dallas and El Paso. The TTI veterans, led by Bill Stockton, raised funds to purchase 18 $20 “ship to shore” AT&T pre-paid telephone cards for each member of the unit.

“I want to thank everyone for their contributions and want to recognize those who pitched in to collect items or help get the shipment ready to mail. We had to itemize, weigh and assign a value to all of the items for the U.S. Customs Service, which was quite a task,” Parker said.